WWL-TV has been honored with a regional Edward R. Murrow award for “NOPD: Call Waiting,” its investigative series examining New Orleans Police response times, produced in partnership with The New Orleans Advocate.
The Murrow award was announced Tuesday by the Radio Television Digital News Association.
Eyewitness News was selected for the award from among television and web site entries in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. This is the 10th time in the past seven years that WWL-TV has been honored with a regional Murrow award. Regional entries automatically compete for national honors, which are announced in June.
The continuing coverage award honors the work of Eyewitness News investigative reporters David Hammer, Katie Moore and Mike Perlstein, as well as photographer/editor T.J. Pipitone; and The New Orleans Advocate team: reporters Jeff Adelson, Jim Mustian, John Simerman and Matt Sledge, as well as Managing Editor for Investigations Gordon Russell.
In the series of reports which were aired and published from October through December 2015, Eyewitness News and The New Orleans Advocate showed that police response times in the city have skyrocketed as the number of New Orleans Police officers has diminished. Delays can mean the difference between life and death, between solving a crime and allowing a predator to strike again.
The two outlets worked together to analyze almost 3 million calls for service to the New Orleans Police Department over the last five years. The joint analysis found that NOPD response times to 911 calls have tripled since 2010 to an average wait of 79 minutes, saddling New Orleans with some of the longest police response times of any major American city.
The multi-part series chronicled the frustration and heartache caused when the police are slow to respond to emergency calls. Using data collected through public records requests, the news outlets created interactive maps that allowed citizens to check response times in their specific neighborhood.
The reports demanded answers from the mayor, police chief and other city leaders, leading to public hearings and significant reform measures that continue to take shape today, including the reallocation of resources on the part of Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Supt. Michael Harrison and NOPD leadership.
